Trading 212 201k Portfolio update (+ investment opportunities)

Both portfolios were down a bit this week due to a bad Friday, having reached £204k on Thursday. 

Top Invest GIA winners - last 30 days

(P.S. Ignore the WDC entry in the above list - AI was hallucinating!).

I made very few trades this week. I am looking at buying some more rare earth companies at a good price as I think China supply problems may escalate. I am looking at companies who have mines or factories in Canada, Australia and Europe rather than China or the USA. 

Current limit orders (which I may or may not cancel next week)

September 2026 outlook

I am still trying to reduce my AI holdings except for memory where I have slightly increased by Hynix/Samsung Korea holdings for now, but may sell them as/when I come into profit again (I crystalised my earlier gains but re-bought after the recent price hit). I am happy to keep my gold/silver/copper stocks. I think the Fed may increase interest rates which may slow down the gold price increase a bit but we will just have to wait and see.

I want to increase my cash holding even more during September. I really can't see Trump lasting much longer in power/control but he is the type of person who won't resign and would rather see the USA suffer than admit defeat. This will make it even more difficult for any country to deal with the USA or take the USA seriously. Many of his actions (tariffs, Acts, etc.) may be reversed later. My plan is to hold commodities and cash to get ready for this and consolidate the gains of the last eight months (even though it means crystalising gains in my GIA account and thus increasing my tax bill for next year). Hopefully, the grown-ups will take control soon. Meanwhile, I am also looking at buying more EU investments, particularly in military defence companies and EU banks (BNKE). I am reluctant to invest in the UK (e.g. IUKD) just now until after the budget. 

Energy

Many countries will be thinking about their energy dependency - nuclear seems to be the only clean, long-term option. SMRs seem to be quite a way off yet. It is not at all clear which SMR company will survive, let alone make a profit and even then we don't know if SMRs are actually economic to run.

I do see a future in home storage batteries however. As batteries become cheaper and safer, they make sense. Installation does not require damaging your roof or expensive annual maintenance. Electricity will be more expensive (demand is increasing due to BEVs and data centres). Heat pumps impose a 24x7 demand on the grid and do not help reduce peak period consumption. Home storage can store the cheap excess power generated by wind at night. Factories which mainly use robots can also run overnight with a skeleton staff and take advantage of cheaper energy too.

So the short/mid-term future must be in increasing renewable energy and combine this with large scale battery storage. Any shortfall can be filled using expensive natural gas power stations.

Recent advances in solar panel technology may double their efficiency soon. Battery technology (e.g. sodium) is also improving.

Since I don't have much expertise in identifying the winning top level companies, I prefer to buy the 'picks and shovel' companies using an ETF. 

As I see it, all these energy technologies and BEVs, etc. will require metals and rare earth minerals, so why not invest in them all via ETFs? I have identified a few ETFs which seem to be doing quite well...

I already hold MP Materials, WREE and DMAD (the distributing form of DMAG) and several copper miners. I may increase my holdings of these ETFs soon as they appear to have suffered (due to China tariffs?) recently. I have avoided S&P 500 ETFs when picking these rare earth ETFs but as you can see above, I may buy a few individual rare earth miners like Lynas (Australia+Malaysia) with limit buys as well (I look at the companies within the ETFs to find suitable candidates).

REGB is the most concentrated on magnet + solar-panel minerals but all three have a high concentration in China which is not ideal.

1. REGB: strongest pure exposure to rare earths/strategic metals; its holdings include Lynas Rare Earths, US based MP Materials, China Northern Rare Earth, Iluka, Jinduicheng Molybdenum, Xiamen Tungsten, Ganfeng Lithium, Pilbara, SQM, Almonty. Best match for rare earth magnet inputs and some solar-related materials. 
2. WREE: also strong, but more diversified across “energy transition metals”; top holdings include Lynas, MP Materials, Anglo American, platinum miners, copper names and some battery-materials exposure. Good, but less pure rare-earth focus than REGB.  
3. DMAD: broadest of the three; it explicitly covers lithium batteries, solar panels, wind turbines, fuel cells, robotics, and 3D printers, with holdings like Freeport-McMoRan, Rio Tinto, Anglo American, Southern Copper, China Northern Rare Earth, Pilbara and EVE Energy. Best if you want wider “disruptive materials,” not the cleanest magnet/solar miner basket. 

Note: This is not investment advice. I try to keep my buying individual company stocks to a minimum and they contribute a tiny  fraction of all my holdings. Mining stocks are extremely volatile as they are subject to governments, natural disasters/accidents, wars and geo-politics. For this reason, I do not regard them as long-term stocks - I try to sell them as quickly as possible after they are in profit and as soon as they appear to have peaked!